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Asklepios is a point-of-care research system that integrates the GeneFluidics electrochemical sensor technology with a microfluidics cartridge. The result is a revolution in molecular analysis - complete automated sample preparation and detection in a small, portable package.
Within the microfluidics cartridge, Asklepios performs the same sample preparation steps that would normally be performed on the laboratory bench: reagent delivery, washing, mixing, and target molecule detection.
The system utilizes a modular microfluidics cartridge with configurable functional components. Application-specific components are inserted into the universal cartridge case. A single cartridge configuration can run a variety of assays. By interchanging the modular components, the possible assay configurations are limitless.
The universal electrochemical sensor array allows detection of multiple targets from a single sample. The revolutionary sensor technology allows any combination of different RNA, DNA, and protein targets to be detected simultaneous in the same cartridge.
After the cartridge has been loaded into the system, the onboard process control runs the entire assay within the cartridge. Typical experiments are complete and results displayed in less than 90 minutes.
View from outside the west portal of the Buck Rock Tunnel in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument during Southern Oregon University's Archaeology Field School, July 2, 2019, by Greg Shine, BLM.
In July 2019, an archaeology field school from the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology partnered with BLM archaeologists to investigate the Buck Rock Tunnel site in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.
Part of the broader Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project, the field school introduced students to historical archaeology method and theory, survey, excavations, site recording and mapping, primary document analysis, and public outreach through fieldwork, field trips, and guest speaking engagements.
On July 7, a public guided history hike--coordinated in partnership with BLM, SOU, and the Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument--highlighted the week’s investigations.
For more information about the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, visit www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/national...
For more information on the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA) visit: inside.sou.edu/soula/index.html.
9:00am: Welcome Remarks by
Ms. Heather A. Conley
Director and Senior Fellow, CSIS Europe Program
Dr. Andrew Kuchins
Director and Senior Fellow, CSIS Russia & Eurasia Program
9:10am: Panel One: Areas of Arctic Cooperation
Featuring:
Mr. David Balton
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Oceans & International Environmental & Scientific Affairs
Ambassador Kåre R. Aas
Norwegian Ambassador to the U.S.
Professor Andrei Zagorski
Director, Department of Disarmament and Conflict Resolution, IMEMO
Ambassador Kenneth S. Yalowitz
Global Fellow, Kennan Institute, Wilson Center
Moderated by
Ms. Heather A. Conley
Director and Senior Fellow, CSIS Europe Program
10:30am: Panel Two: Enhancing Scientific and Research Cooperation in the Arctic
Featuring:
Dr. Kelly Falkner
Director, Division of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation
Mr. Raymond Arnaudo
Senior Scholar, Center for Science Diplomacy
Mr. John Farrell
Executive Director, U.S. Arctic Research Commission
Dr. Marya Levintova
International Health Program Officer, National Institute of Health (invited)
Moderated by
Dr. Andrew Kuchins
Director and Senior Fellow, CSIS Russia & Eurasia Program
12:00pm: Lunch
12:30pm: Keynote Address: Addressing the Needs for Arctic Shipping
Admiral Thad Allen (invited)
Executive Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton: Strategy & Technology Consulting Firm
1:00pm: Panel Three: Understanding Economic Trends in the Arctic
Featuring:
Mr. David Hayes
Senior Fellow, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Mr. Bud Darr
Senior Vice President, Technical and Regulatory Affairs, Cruise Lines International Association
Mr. Inuuteq Holm Olsen
Greenland Representative, Danish Embassy
Moderated by
Professor Marlene Laruelle
Research Professor, George Washington University
2:30pm: Panel Four: Future Cooperation in Fisheries and the Marine Environment
Featuring:
Mr. Scott Highleyman
Director, International Arctic, Pew Charitable Trusts
Professor Andrei Zagorski
Director, Department of Disarmament and Conflict Resolution
Mr. David Balton
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Oceans & International Environmental & Scientific Affairs
Moderated by
Mr. Brooks Yeager
Principal, Birdwell Strategies
4:00pm: Panel Five: Implications for the U.S. Arctic Council Chairmanship: Seeking to Strengthen the Arctic Council Regime
Featuring:
Professor Marlene Laruelle
Research Professor, George Washington University
Dr. Tom Axworthy
President & CEO, Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation, Canada
Ms. Julie Gourley
U.S. Senior Arctic Official, U.S. Department of State
Dr. Lawson Brigham
Professor of Geography & Arctic Policy, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Moderated by
Heather A. Conley
Director and Senior Fellow, CSIS Europe Program
Programs
Third-generation device significantly improves capture of circulating tumor cells -
System combining two approaches rapidly identifies cells from all types of solid tumors
BOSTON – A new system for isolating rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) – living solid tumor cells found at low levels in the bloodstream – shows significant improvement over previously developed devices and does not require prior identification of tumor-specific target molecules. Developed at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Engineering in Medicine and the MGH Cancer Center, the device rapidly delivers a population of unlabeled tumor cells that can be analyzed with both standard clinical diagnostic cytopathology and advanced genetic and molecular technology. The MGH team's report has been published in Science Translational Medicine.
"This new technology allows us to follow how cancer cells change through the process of metastasis," says Mehmet Toner, PhD, director of the BioMicroElectroMechanical Systems Resource Center in the MGH Center for Engineering in Medicine, the paper's senior author. "Cancer loses many of its tissue characteristics during metastasis, a process we have not understood well. Now for the first time we have the ability to discover how cancer evolves through analysis of single metastatic cells, which is a big step in the war against cancer.”
The new device – called the CTC-iChip – is the third microchip-based device for capturing CTCs developed at the MGH Center for Engineering in Medicine. The first two systems relied on prior knowledge of a tumor-specific surface marker in order to sort CTCs from whole blood and required significant adjustment for each different type of cancer. The systems also required four to five hours to process a single blood sample.
The only U.S. Food & Drug Administration-cleared, commercially available device for capturing and enumerating CTCs – the CELLSEARCH® system developed by Veridex, LLC – relies on magnetic nanoparticles that bind to the same epithelial protein used in the MGH -developed microchip-based devices and cannot always find CTCs present at very low numbers. In January 2011 the MGH entered into a collaborative agreement with Veridex and its affiliate Janssen Research & Development, LLC, to establish a center of excellence in research on CTC technologies.
Combining elements of both approaches – magnetic labeling of target cells and microfluidic sorting – the CTC-iChip works by putting a blood sample through three stages. The first removes from the sample, on the basis of cell size, all blood components except for CTCs and white blood cells. The second step uses a microfluidic process developed at the MGH to align the cells in a single file, allowing for extremely precise and rapid sorting. In the third stage, magnetically labeled target cells – either CTCs tagged via the epithelial marker or white blood cells tagged on known blood-cell antigens – are sorted out. Tagging white blood cells instead of CTCs leaves behind a population of unlabeled and unaltered tumor cells and doesn't rely on the presence of the epithelial marker or other known tumor antigens on the cell surface.
The new system was able to process blood samples at the extremely rapid rate of 10 million cells per second, handling a tube of blood in less than an hour. Both the mode of sorting out tagged CTCs, called tumor-antigen-dependent, and the technique that depletes white blood cells, called tumor-antigen-independent, recovered more than 80 percent of tumor cells from different types of cancer that had been added to blood samples. Comparison of the antigen-dependent-mode CTC-iChip with existing commercial technology for processing blood samples from patients with prostate, breast, pancreatic, colorectal and lung cancer showed the CTC-iChip to be more sensitive at detecting low levels of CTCs.
In the antigen-independent mode, the CTC-iChip successfully identified CTCs from several types of cancers that had lost or never had the epithelial marker, including triple-negative breast cancer and melanoma. CTCs isolated through this mode were put through standard cytopathological analysis, which revealed structural similarities to the original tumor, and detailed molecular genotyping of CTCs from a single patient found significant differences in gene expression patterns among individual CTCs.
"We're only beginning to identify potential applications of the ability to analyze how tumors mutate as they spread, but this should help improve our understanding of the fundamental genetic principles of metastasis," says Toner, the Benedict Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School (HMS). "We hope to develop this technology to the point where it could be used for early diagnosis, which is the 'Holy Grail' that all of us working on CTC technology have been striving for."
Ravi Kapur, PhD, of the Center for Engineering in Medicine, leader of the innovation team within the MGH Circulating Tumor Cell Center (www.massgeneral.org/research/resourcelab.aspx?id=50), says, "The CTC-iChip provides a first-in-class device for high-efficiency, high-speed tumor cell sorting from a clinically relevant blood volume. The chip is designed for mass manufacturing, and simple automation for clinical translation." The team is working with collaborators at Veridex and Janssen to refine the system for commercial development.
Study co-author Daniel Haber, MD, PhD, director of the MGH Cancer Center and Isselbacher/Schwartz Professor of Oncology at HMS, adds, "The study of cancer metastasis has been limited by the inability to quickly and reliably isolate tumor cells in transit in the blood. This new approach is likely to be a game changer in the field."
Support for this work comes from Veridex, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, a "dream team" award from Stand Up to Cancer, and grants from the National Institutes of Health and other funders. The MGH has applied for a patent on the CTC-iChip technology. Co-lead authors of the Science Translational Medicine report are Emre Ozkumur and Ajay Shah of the MGH Center for Engineering in Medicine, and additional co-authors include Shyamala Maheswaran, PhD, of the MGH Cancer Center.
Massachusetts General Hospital (www.massgeneral.org), founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $775 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine. In July 2012, MGH moved into the number one spot on the 2012-13 U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."
How to apply SWOT analysis. More information: www.designorate.com/six-swot-analysis-tools-and-applicati...
37 West 39th Street, Midtown, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
The Haskins & Sells building, designed by architect Frederick C. Zobel, was originally constructed in 1912 as a speculative venture of the Brunswick Realty Company, a real estate enterprise headed by Zobel's brother Robert. The building, located at 35-37 West 39th Street in Midtown Manhattan, was adjacent to the renowned Engineers' Club and Engineering Societies' buildings, and was initially referred to as the Commercial Engineers Building in hopes of attracting engineering-related businesses. From the beginning, however, the building was home to a variety of tenants. From 1920 to 1930, the building served as the principle location for the accounting firm of Haskins & Sells, recognized as the first major auditing firm founded by American accountants. Haskins & Sells was started in 1895 by Charles Waldo Haskins, nephew of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Elijah Watt Sells. Although the company only owned the building for five years, an indelible reminder of their presence has been left in the form of a first-story frieze bearing the inscription 'Haskins & Sells', the years of the firm's founding and acquisition of the building, and the name of the architect.
The 12-story Renaissance Revival-style building is an imaginative and graceful combination of architectural elements and details.
The tripartite design features an arcaded base characterized by two-story round-arched openings and elaborate terra-cotta ornament inlaid with marble details. The door and window openings of the first and second stories are further articulated by cast-iron details featuring intricate grillwork, elongated baluster columns, and semi-circular foliated pediments. From the base, the structure ascends to a canted tower constructed primarily of blonde brick and crowned by even more exuberant terra-cotta and marble detailing, including a modillioned cornice. A balustraded terra-cotta balcony is located at the fourth story, where the tower begins its canted ascent.
Architect Frederick C. Zobel was particularly active in the first decade of the 20th century. Zobel primarily designed commercial structures, including several buildings designated as part of the Tribeca East, Soho Cast-Iron, Ladies' Mile, and Greenwich Village Extension II historic districts. Zobel was also considered an expert in the field of building engineering, particularly with respect to skyscraper construction techniques.
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
West 39th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
At the turn of the 20th century, West 39th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, the future site of the Haskins & Sells building, was at the crossroads of several rapidly-evolving Midtown neighborhoods. In the late 1800s, Fifth Avenue between 34th and 59th Streets had been established as one of the most fashionable addresses in Manhattan, and residential rowhouses lined the blocks to the east and to the west.
By 1900, however, various real estate forces were coalescing to permanently alter the character of this part of Manhattan. Construction of Grand Central Terminal at East 42nd Street between Madison and Lexington Avenues, and the decking of the railroad tracks running north from the station, accelerated the commercialization of eastern Midtown and spurred the development of an important hotel and business district. With respect to the blocks surrounding the future site of the Haskins & Sells building, considered the northwest periphery of the Murray Hill neighborhood, the construction of or conversion of private residences into exclusive retail shops, restaurants and office buildings, was already well underway by the close of the century.
Midtown Manhattan, west of Fifth Avenue, was being similarly transformed at the turn of the 20th century. A growing transportation hub at Herald Square , featured cross-town streetcars, the Sixth Avenue Elevated, and the Hudson Tubes to New Jersey, and helped secure the continued commercial development of this part of Midtown.
The successful openings of two department stores at Herald Square, Saks & Co. in 1900 followed by R.H. Macy's in 1901-02, anchored a new shopping district that encouraged similar businesses to relocate northwards from Madison Square. The construction of restaurants and hotels to meet shoppers' needs logically followed. The opening of Pennsylvania Station at 34th Street and Seventh Avenue in 1910 precipitated even higher demand for realty in the blocks surrounding the station, which had become known as the 'Pennsylvania terminal loft zone' due to the large number of plans filed for manufacturing and business structures which proceeded the announcement of plans for the station.
In 1899, the block surrounding the future site of the Haskins & Sells building, bounded by Fifth and Sixth Avenues, West 39l and West 40th Streets, was still lined with the four-story rowhouses that had been built in the mid-century. By 1903, the New York Times had cited this block as an example of how commercial forces were "already being felt in the side streets" off of Fifth Avenue by "the recent leasing for business purposes" of the houses along the street.
Many of the residences which were not converted for commercial use were demolished for the construction of new, larger commercial structures. On the south side of West 40th Street, opposite the newly constructed New York Public Library , the Engineers' Club was built in 1905, part of the same architectural commission as the much larger Engineering Societies' Building, constructed along West 39th Street in the same year. Adjacent to the latter building, the two four-story rowhouses at 35 and 37 West 39th Street were sold in 1911 for construction of the 12-story office tower which would later become known as the Haskins & Sells building.
At least four other rowhouses on the block were also sold within the year, including 3, 7, 9 and 11 West 39th Street. By the end of the 1920s, virtually no traces of the one-time residential character of the block remained.
Early History of the Haskins & Sells Building
The two mid-19 -century rowhouses at 35 and 37 West 39th Street were purchased in 1911 by the Brunswick Realty Company and were soon demolished for construction of the 12- story office tower, completed in 1912 at a projected cost of $185,000. Located adjacent to the renowned Engineers' Club and Engineering Societies' buildings , 35-37 West 39th Street was initially referred to as the Commercial Engineers Building in hopes of attracting high- paying tenants in the engineering professions.
The Real Estate Record and Builder's Guide went so far as to assert that the venture would be "the first step in the creation of an engineering center which must naturally radiate from buildings so prominent as the United Engineering Societies' Building [sic], which immediately adjoins the proposed building, and the Engineers' Club, which is to the rear of the new building." It was also reported that the building was designed "as to conform" architecturally with its renowned neighbor, although an aesthetic relationship between the two structures is not evident.
Upon completion, the new building at 3537 West 39th Street was referred to by its engineering moniker in advertisements, which also touted the building's "absolutely fireproof' construction and amenities including a mezzanine, offices and studios. In 1912, the New York Times described the interior of the building as designed to meet the requirements of engineers requiring office space.
While the Engineers' Club and Engineering Societies' Building were considered the epicenter of engineering in the United States for nearly six decades, and despite the presence of a few related businesses in the neighborhood, the Haskins & Sells building was only ever home to a handful of tenants in the engineering professions. One of the building's longest tenancies, and one of the few related to engineering, was that of the American Society of Refrigerator Engineers .
The group occupied space in the building beginning in the late 1920s, and remained until at least 1940. In 1924, the Institute of Radio Engineers, which would later merge with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers , leased a small suite of rooms, relocating in 1946 when they had outgrown the space. The New York Unity Society of Scientific Christianity, which held Sunday services in the auditorium of the Engineering Societies' Building, was headquartered in the Haskins & Sells building for several years during the 1920s.
During the Second World War, the Office of the Chief of Engineers of the War Department appears to have leased space in the building.
Among the building's earliest tenants were the Mumm Champagne and Importation Company, previously located at 60 Warren Street in Lower Manhattan, whose lease of the store and basement of the building was announced in 1913. Another importing company, Renken & Yates Smith, Inc., was noted in the building in 1919. The Brunswick Realty Company, whose offices were previously located at East 28th Street, relocated to the building in 1913-14. They remained in the building, which they owned and managed, until 1920, the year they sold it to the Haskins & Sells Company.
Another early tenant was the State and National Association Opposed to Political Suffrage for Women, an organization headed by women and headquartered in the building beginning c. 1914. As the debate surrounding suffrage intensified, at least one related organization also came to lease space in the building, the Man Suffrage Association Opposed to Political Suffrage for Women, located in room 305 starting c. 1917. Both organizations, as suggested by their names, hoped to forestall attempts to pass a Constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote. Such opposition, of course, failed when, in May 1919, the House of Representatives voted to pass the 19th Amendment, prohibiting the denial of any citizen the right to vote based on gender, followed by the Senate in June of the same year. It is probably not a coincidence that the New York City League of Women Voters had moved into the very same building by the autumn of 1919.
The Manhattan Borough League of Women Voters, founded in 1920, the year the act was ratified, the New York City League of Women Voters, and the New York State League of Women Voters, which also had offices at Grand Central Terminal, were all headquartered at 35-37 West 39th Street by 1922. Although the New York State League of Women Voters relocated to an office on East 45th Street c. 1924, the New York City League of Women Voters remained in the building through the end of the decade.
The Haskins & Sells Company
In July 1920, the Brunswick Realty Company sold the building at 35-37 West 39th Street to the Haskins & Sells Company, recognized as the first major auditing firm founded by American accountants. From 1920 to 1930, the building served as the principle location for the firm, started in 1895 by Charles Waldo Haskins and Elijah Watt Sells . Although the company only owned the building for five years, an indelible reminder of their presence has been left in the form of a first-story frieze bearing the inscription 'Haskins & Sells', the years of the firm's founding and acquisition of the building, and the name of the architect.
Born in Brooklyn, Charles Waldo Haskins was the nephew of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the well-known American writer and leader of the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. His father, Waldo Emerson Haskins, was a New York banker and broker. Haskins, who was educated at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and in Paris, learned the accounting trade while serving as bookkeeper for various railroads and within the federal government. He first set up his own accounting business in 1886 and was known throughout his career as a strong advocate of accounting standards, writing and lecturing widely on the subject.
In 1893, Haskins and Sells were appointed as experts under the Joint Commission of the 53rd Congress to revise the accounting system of the United States. According to his New York Times obituary, Haskins was instrumental in the passage of an 1896 act regulating the profession of public accounting. The act also prescribed a Board of Examiners to be appointed by the Regents of the University of the State of New York. Haskins later served as president of this board. In 1900, Haskins & Sells founded New York University's School of Commerce, Accounts and Financing. Haskins served as the school's first dean and established the first professorships in accounting.
Elijah Watt Sells was born in Muscatine, Iowa. He attended Baker University in Kansas, but left at the age of 16 to become a station agent for the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad. He gained his accounting experience over the following two decades, serving as bookkeeper and accountant for various railroads. His father, Elijah Sells, had served at various times as Secretary of the State of Iowa and Auditor of the Treasury Department under President Abraham Lincoln. Following Haskins death in 1903, Sells successfully managed the firm for more than two decades. The prestigious Elijah Watt Sells Award, established in 1923, is presented to Certified Public Accountant candidates who earn the highest grades on the CPA exam.
The accounting firm of Haskins & Sells was originally located at 2 Nassau Street, but moved just a year later to 30 Broad Street in Lower Manhattan. In 1920, the firm acquired the building at 35-37 West 39th Street and made it their headquarters, retaining the downtown location for its general practice. Though Haskins & Sells sold the 39th Street building in 1925, records indicate the firm continued to be headquartered there through at least 1930, at which time they opened new offices at 15 Broad Street and at 75 East 45th Street. Haskins & Sells expanded internationally to several countries in 1952, and, following a series of mergers and name changes, continues to exist today under the name Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu . It is one of the four largest accounting and professional services organizations in the world which, together with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG, are known as the "Big Four." The global headquarters of Deloitte & Touche continue to be located in New York City.
Other Notable Tenants and Subsequent History
In 1920, the Garment Center Realty Company, an association of 38 large manufacturers of women's clothing, developed two sites along Seventh Avenue between 36th and 38th Streets, in direct response to the economic forces that were driving New York City's garment district northward from Madison Square, where it had been centered in 1910. By 1931, the area of Midtown between 30th and 42nd Streets, Sixth and Ninth Avenues - conveniently located near hotels, the city's main retail district, and its two most important rail terminals - had the largest concentration of apparel manufacturers in the world. By the late 1920s, the Haskins & Sells building, located on the cusp of the newly established Garment District, had become particularly attractive to milliners and trimmings companies. During this era, tenants such as Brandee & Stark , Julian D. Cohen , Daniels & Fishers Stores Co., Evergreen California Hats Inc., and Myers H&E&S , rented sales offices, showrooms, and even engaged in some light manufacturing within the building. As hats went out of fashion in the decades following the Second World War, many of the tradesmen left the area, leaving behind an assortment of tenants, many of whom paid as little at $10 per square foot for space in the Haskins & Sells building.
The Haskins & Sells Company only owned the building at 35-37 West 39th Street for five years, conveying it to the 35-37 West 39th Street Corporation in December 1925. Within three years, the property was resold, to the Titusville Building Corporation, a subsidiary of the American Radiator Company, whose building at 40-46 West 40th Street abuts the Haskins & Sells building to the rear. In 1941, the Haskins & Sells building was physically linked to the American Radiator Building by means of a bridge at the sixth story. This bridge was removed in 1950, the same year the building was sold to the Dallas Realty Corporation. Within just a few months, the Haskins & Sells building was turned over to yet another owner, the Wellington Realty & Management Corporation. Over the course of the next few decades, the Haskins & Sells building continued to pass through the ownership of numerous corporations, remaining remarkably intact throughout the years.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the neighborhood, so closely associated with the garment industry, offered only limited appeal to other kinds of office tenants—even after large amounts of garment production returned to lower Manhattan neighborhoods such as Chinatown and the Lower East Side, and despite the proximity of Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station. In the late 1980s, the area along Fifth Avenue from the Empire State Building at 34th Street to the New York Public Library experienced an economic revitalization. At the same time, the office buildings located on the side streets off Fifth Avenue continued to garner less than half the rent of those on the main thoroughfare. In 1988, in an effort to improve its economic standing, the Haskins & Sells building underwent a full renovation. The structure's mechanical system was upgraded, and the original freight elevator was replaced by a passenger car. The lobby of the building, last refurbished in the 1950s, received new marble floors and walls, a new tenant directory and a concierge desk. The upgrades had the desired effect, and the building soon acquired a new tenant, the International Design Group, an architecture firm that rented the 4,000 square-foot top floor. The building's association with the garment industry, however, was not entirely eradicated. New showroom space, also included as part of the renovation, allowed the owners to aggressively market the building to manufacturers of fashion accessories. By 1993, nine of the building's 36 tenants were in accessory-related businesses. Today, a variety of businesses continue to occupy the building, including some related to the garment industry, in addition to accounting, law, engineering consulting, and architectural offices.
The Brunswick Realty Corporation and Frederick Charles Zobel
The Brunswick Realty Corporation, developers of the Haskins & Sells building, were specialists in building development, brokering and management. The company was run by Robert Paul Zobel , president, and his brothers Jason A. Zobel and Frederick Charles Zobel. The three brothers were born in Breslau, Germany and immigrated to the United States in the early 1880s. Jason is occasionally listed in directories as secretary of the company, while Frederick appears to have served both as vice president and, more notably, as chief architect on most, if not all, of the company's numerous development projects, including the Haskins & Sells building. Advertisements for the company, which appeared in the New York Times as early as 1906, touted the firm as a full-service real estate enterprise which helped companies relocate, either to one of the buildings they managed or to new structures that the company would construct based on client needs. The Brunswick Realty Corporation's earliest offices appear to have been located at 118 East 28th Street. They remained at this location until shortly after completion of the Haskins & Sells building, first appearing in Trow's City Directory as being located in the new building in 1913-14.
Frederick C. Zobel, who did not work exclusively for the Brunswick Realty Company, was established as an architect and builder in New York City in 1893. Though his career lasted through 1936, he was particularly active in the first decade of the 20th century. Zobel primarily designed commercial structures, and was noted in the Real Estate Record and Builder's Guide in 1911 as "an architect who has had a large part in designing modern business buildings in the central part of the city." Among the buildings designed by Zobel over the course of his long career are several designated as part of the Tribeca East, Soho Cast-Iron, Ladies' Mile, and Greenwich Village Extension II historic districts. During his years of practice, Zobel was also considered an expert in the field of building engineering, with particular respect to fireproof construction and the erection of modern steel buildings. His New York Times obituary credited him with the design of "several features of skyscraper construction." Zobel was also involved in planning and civic endeavors, in New York City and abroad.
The Architecture of the Haskins & Sells Building
The 12-story Renaissance Revival style Haskins & Sells building is an imaginative and graceful combination of architectural elements and details. The tripartite design features an arcaded base characterized by two-story round-arched openings and elaborate terra-cotta ornament inlaid with marble details. The door and window openings of the first and second stories are further articulated by cast-iron details featuring intricate grillwork, elongated baluster columns, and semi-circular foliated pediments. From the base, the structure ascends to a canted tower constructed primarily of blonde brick and crowned by even more exuberant terra-cotta and marble detailing, including a modillioned cornice. A balustraded terra-cotta balcony at the fourth story, where the tower begins its canted ascent, can be accessed only via window. A 10-foot alleyway between the building and its neighbor to the east, which the Real Estate Record and
Builder's Guide noted as "giving the new structure particularly good advantages for light and air," in concert with the canted tower, has assured these qualities for the building's tenants for nearly a century. A 1914 anecdote printed in the American Club Woman, and accompanied by a photo, seems to confirm this point, stating how rooms occupied by the War Children's Christmas Fund were absolutely "flooded with sunshine in the mornings"
While the buildings erected east of Fifth Avenue after the turn of the 20th century tended to exhibit a more subdued architectural and social atmosphere, the theaters, stores and hotels constructed west of Fifth Avenue were typically more exuberantly ornamented. The Haskins & Sells building, with its facade "almost entirely of glazed terra cotta" was considered one of the more "interesting structures" erected on 39th Street west of Fifth Avenue. Given Zobel's reputation as an innovator of fireproofing and construction techniques, it is not surprising that the structure was also touted as cutting edge with respect to its construction.
Though common today, the building's departure from the typical plan featuring open stairs within the hall in favor of stairways entirely separated and enclosed by fireproof partitions and self-closing doors, was considering highly innovative at the time. Its elevators were also enclosed in shafts so as to prevent the penetration of smoke or flames from one story to another.
Remarkably, the exterior of the Haskins & Sells building has remained virtually untouched since its construction nearly a century ago. At the first story, the glass doors and showroom windows have been replaced, but the surrounding terra-cotta and cast-iron details have been left almost entirely intact. The same stands true for the rest of the building, where windows, but little else, have been replaced. As a result, the Haskins & Sells building stands today as a lasting visual reminder of the commercial transformation of West 39th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues after the turn of the 20th century.
Description
The Haskins & Sells building is a 12-story Renaissance Revival style office structure with two visible elevations and one partially-visible elevation.
South Facade: The building's primary facade fronts onto West 39th Street and is divided into a tripartite vertical composition consisting of a three-story terra-cotta base, seven-story blonde brick shaft and two-story terra-cotta capital.
Base: The base of the building is symmetrically divided into three bays, each featuring a two-story round-arched opening articulated by elaborate terra-cotta molding and foliate keystones. At the central bay, a terra-cotta frieze, capped by a small molded terra-cotta cornice, separates the first and second stories and features an inlaid yellow marble panel with the inscription 'Haskins & Sells Building,' the years '1895' and '1920,' and in much small lettering, the name 'F.C. Zobel.' Similar friezes at the outer bays feature sculptural swags and wreaths with centers of yellow marble. The outer bays of the double-height first story contain glass double-doors , while the central bay features a fixed show window .
The extended height of the first story allows for large, fixed rectangular transoms above each of the door and show window openings. Elongated cast-iron baluster columns flank the first- story door openings and elaborate cast-iron grillwork surrounds and enhances each of the transoms, the transom bars, and the rounded-arch window openings of the first and second stories. Round pediments sit above the transom bars at the outer bays and feature foliate details and bronze address numbers.
Pink marble trim rises several feet at the building's base. Just above the round-arched opening of the second story, terra-cotta hood moldings and red terracotta roundels span between large terra-cotta cartouches. A large molded, denticulated terra
cotta cornice rests above the second story and appears to serve as a sill course for the third- story fenestration. Each third-story bay contains paired rectangular window openings separated by a thin, foliated colonette. A pair of pilasters featuring elaborate terra-cotta detailing and Corinthian capitals flanks each pair of window openings at the third story while robust swags, cartouches, and red terra-cotta roundels span between the pilasters. Circular terra-cotta details and inset yellow marble panels flank the central bay.
A delicate, molded terra-cotta band rests above the pilasters of the third story, above which is found a large, molded terra-cotta cornice. A substantial terra-cotta cartouche further adorns the third story towards the left edge of the elevation, while a similar cartouche wraps around the rightmost edge of the elevation. Above the rightmost bay at the fourth story is a terra-cotta balustrade which features a molded rail, inset post details, and foliated balusters. Alterations: Some cast-iron details have been removed from the central bay at the first story to accommodate a modern show window and commercial sign.
A low, pink granite step at the leftmost bay was matched and replaced in 1987-89, at the same time all new glass at the first-story door and window openings and sidelights was installed . The center storefront was revised around this same time, and all cast- iron ornamental elements were painted. Four globe lamps on cast-iron armatures at the first story were added after 1985. Four non-original bronze address numbers are also affixed at the first story, along with some small, non-historic signs.
Shaft: The seven-story blonde-brick shaft of the building is also divided into three bays, with the rightmost bay canted at a 45 degree angle to the rest of the building . Each bay at the shaft features paired rectangular window openings separated by terra-cotta posts with foliate details. Terra-cotta lintels with roundel details surmount each of the paired window openings at the fourth through ninth stories.
Engaged Doric colonettes separate the paired window openings of the 10th story, which are surmounted by molded terra-cotta lintels with scroll keystones. The lintels above the 10th-story window openings are incorporated into the large, molded terra-cotta cornice which rests above the 10th story, and which appears to serve as a sill course for the 11th- story fenestration. A heavy, bracketed terra-cotta balconette can be found at the eighth-story window opening of the right-most, canted bay of the shaft.
The balconette features many of the same motifs found elsewhere on the building, including a molded rail, swags, and foliate details. The balconette is flush with the lintel of the paired seventh-story window openings beneath it. Alterations: All the windows of the shaft appear to have been replaced.
Capital: The two dynamically detailed stories of the building's capital feature many of the same motifs found at the first through third stories of the building. Like the base and shaft, the capital is similarly divided into three bays, with the rightmost bay canted at a 45 degree angle to the rest of the elevation. Each bay of the capital contains paired window openings, rectangular at the 11th story and featuring round-arched upper sashes at the 12th story.
A foliated colonette, continuous from the 11th to 12th stories, separates each of the paired window openings, while simple Doric colonettes flank each pair. Terra-cotta panels featuring sculptural wreath details with inlaid yellow marble centers surmount each window opening at the 11th story. Molded terracotta lintels surmount each round-arched window opening at the 12th story, spanning between the colonettes. The terra-cotta panels of the 11th story and lintels of the 12th story are slightly recessed within round-arched molded terra-cotta surrounds, continuous from the 11th to 12th stories.
At the 12th story, the spandrels beneath the round-arched surrounds feature circular terra cotta details and inlaid yellow marble panels. The outer corners of each bay at the 12th story is adorned by small, red terra-cotta roundels. Each bay of the capital is flanked by a larger, more
elaborate version of the pilasters flanking each paired window opening at the third-story, continuous here from the 11th to 12th stories. A molded terra-cotta architrave rests on the pilasters, above which is a frieze featuring a series of red terra-cotta rosettes spanned by foliate terra-cotta details. An overhanging, molded terra-cotta cornice supported on large foliate brackets crowns the elevation. Alterations: The windows of the capital appear to have been replaced at the 11th story, though the 12th story windows may retain historic upper sashes.
East Facade: The east facade of the Haskins & Sells building is mostly comprised of blonde brick laid in a common bond and is largely not designed, with the notable exception of the first bay at the first through third stories. The terra-cotta details of this portion of the elevation wrap from the primary elevation and match the details of the individual bays of the primary elevation. Within the two-story round-arched opening of this leftmost bay, paneled, white brick is found at the first story in lieu of a door opening or show window.
The large rectangular transom above the brick paneling is closed-off and guarded by iron security grilles. Cast-iron grillwork, matching that of the primary elevation, is found at the round-arched window opening of the second story at this bay. Above the third story, continuous with the rightmost bay of the primary elevation, is the same terra-cotta balustrade which features a molded rail, inset post details, and foliated balusters, above which rises the canted bay of the primary elevation.
Beyond this first bay, the first story features four tall rectangular window openings with projecting, rectangular masonry sills and iron security grilles. A one-story pavilion towards the right of the elevation is flush with the rest of the elevation and features only masonry coping and a single rectangular door opening. Just to the left of the pavilion is a second rectangular door opening which features a large, flush masonry lintel. At the second through 12th stories, the elevation features six bays.
The first, fourth, fifth and sixth bays feature single, rectangular window openings with projecting, rectangular masonry sills. The second and third bays feature triple rectangular window openings with continuous projecting, rectangular masonry sills. A solid brick parapet caps the elevation and features terra-cotta coping. A large duct is affixed to the pavilion at the right of the elevation , as is a large amount of conduit and wiring.
Towards the left of the elevation, a large, cylindrical mechanical unit is affixed on an iron armature at the first story. A masonry gateway belonging to the neighboring building and spanning the 10-foot alleyway between the two structures abuts the elevation at the first story, closer to West 39th Street . Alterations: All windows of this elevation have been replaced.
West Facade: The west facade of the Haskins & Sells building, only partially visible above the eight-story of the neighboring building, is mostly comprised of red-brick and is not designed, although some of the materials from the south facade wrap around slightly onto this elevation. The irregular roofline of the west facade reveals a penthouse unit. Where visible, the facade appears to feature a number of irregularly spaced rectangular window openings. A large metal duct, affixed to the facade towards West 39th Street, rises above the 12th story and is attached to the penthouse. Alterations: Portions of this elevation appear to have been repointed and painted. All visible windows appear to have been replaced.
- From the 2011 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
Almost two years after the presentation of the EU Global Strategy and more than a year after Jean Claude Juncker’s white book on the future of Europe, the European Union still struggles with major challenges and threats that seem to undermine the stability of the security environment within its borders and in its neighbourhood. In the aftermath of Brexit and with the proximity of to the European Parliament elections in 2019, the third International Conference Europe as a Global Actor (Lisbon, May 24 & 25, 2018) will discuss the role the EU can play in the current global transformations, as well as the domestic and external obstacles it faces as a global actor.
The Center for International Studies of ISCTE-IUL organized the third edition of the International Conference “Europe as a global actor”, on 24 and 25 May.
The opening lecture was given by the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, on May 24, at 09:30 am.
The Conference Program also included a debate on the state of the Union with the presence of Portuguese MEPs, panels and round-tables on the challenges of the Common Security and Defense Policy, the future of European security and defense, the EU’s relationship with other global players and the future of the European Union as a global player. In addition to the presence of several invited scholars, in plenary sessions moderated by Portuguese journalists, the program also included the presentation of communications by around 40 international researchers in this area of knowledge.
May 25th
10h00-12h00 | Roundtable III
Roundtable: State of the Union – Portuguese Members of the European Parliament (Aud. B203) – session in Portuguese
Moderator: Ricardo Alexandre (CEI-IUL; Journalist TSF)
Cláudia Monteiro de Aguiar (EPP)
Carlos Zorrinho (S&D)
António Marinho e Pinto (ALDE)
João Ferreira (GUE / NGL)
Pedro Mota Soares (CDS-PP) (tbc)
12h00 – 14h00 – Lunch Break
14h00 – 15h45 |Parallel Sessions III
Panel 7 – Economy, Energy and Geopolitics (Room C201)
Moderator: Timea Pal (CEI-IUL)
Simon Schlegel (ISG) & Allison Nathan Araujo de Miranda (ISCSP): “EU Global Strategy 2020-2030: the Revival of the Franco-German Consensus-Engine in face of the EU-Lusophone Trade Relations”
Paloma Diaz Topete (College of Europe): “In Varietate Concordia or Divide et Impera? The Security Implications of Chinese FDI in EU Member States”
Natallia Tsiareshchanka (College of Europe; University of Kent): “Nord Stream 2: when geopolitical and commercial interests are at stake”
Zuzanna Gulczyńska (Adam Mickiewicz University, College of Europe, University Lille 2): “The energy cooperation between the EU and Algeria – what legal future?”
Panel 8 – Soft & Normative Power (Room C302)
Moderator: Ana Mónica Fonseca (CEI-IUL)
Idalina Conde (ISCTE-IUL): “Tables as metaphors. Europe in the World and cultural diplomacy”
Andrea Perilli (College of Europe): “Erasmus student or EU ambassador? People-to-people contact in the European Neighbourhood policy: the cases of Georgia, Ukraine and Tunisia”
Osman Sabri Kiratli (Bogazici University): “When do Voters Choose to Delegate?: Europeans’ Attitudes on Multilateral Aid”
João Espada Rodrigues (CEI-IUL): “EU and Democracy Promotion”
Nezka Figelj (University of Trieste): “EU not only a payer but also a player in the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA)”
15h45 – 16h15 – Coffee Break
16h15 – 17h45 | Parallel Sessions IV
Panel 9 – EU and Crisis Management (Room C201)
Moderator: Diogo Lemos (CEI-IUL)
Csaba Toro (Karoli Gaspar University of the Reformed Church in Hungary): “External institutional partnerships as vehicles of implementation in pursuit of effective and adaptive EU contribution to international crisis management”
Inês Marques Ribeiro (CEI-IUL): “A critical discourse analysis of the normative justification of the EU’s crisis management actorness”
Pablo Arconada Ledesma (Universidad de Valladolid): “European Union’s Missions In Somalia: Ten Years Of Successes And Failures (2008-2018)”
Panel 10 – Political Parties, Populism, Euroscepticism (Room C301)
Moderator: Riccardo Marchi (CEI-IUL)
Ewa Szczepankiewicz-Rudzka (Jagiellonian University, Krakow): “From Consensus to Skepticism?: Attitudes of Polish Society towards European Integration”
Ana Mónica Fonseca (CEI-IUL): “The SPD in government: a party in crisis”
Pedro Ponte e Sousa (FCSH-UNL & IPRI): “Portuguese foreign relations with the United States in the age of Trump: aligning with the superpower or supporting a European global stance?”
Teona Lavrelashvili (European Commission, KU Leuven) & Alex Andrione-Moylan (KU Leuven): “The populist playbook in the Western Balkans: Case of Serbia and Montenegro”
18h00 – 20h00 | Roundtable IV
Closing Roundtable The Future of Transatlantic Relations (Aud. B203):
Moderator: Bárbara Reis (Público)
Sven Biscop (Egmont Royal Institute for Foreign Relations, Brussels)
Mike Haltzel (Center for Transatlantic Relations; Johns Hopkins University SAIS)
Carlos Gaspar (IPRI-NOVA)
Susana Pedro
Someone has found the 'Master Equation for All Life Processes':
I = i0* M^(3/4)*e^(–E/(k*T))
I is an individual's metabolic rate, i0 is a normalization constant, M is mass, E is the activation energy, k is Boltzmann's constant, and T is body temperature in kelvins
Analysis by microscopy
___________________________
Custom modular building with a pharmacy on the first floor, a medical practioner on the second floor and a dentist on the top floor.
www.flickr.com/photos/palixa_and_the_bricks/sets/72157639...
Oil production growth in the Northern Great Plains region is expected to continue primarily from the Bakken. Although additional API gravity data were not available from the North Dakota Industrial Commission, industry reports indicate that Bakken crude oil consistently measures between 40 and 45 degrees API gravity. www.eia.gov/analysis/petroleum/crudetypes/pdf/crudetypes.pdf
Publication date: June 4, 2014
Waves weekly market overview for waves news and premium bitcoin market analysis. Waves coin announcement from Sasha brings crypto news like Waves Community Token and all its blockchain benefits. Sasha Inovov also highlights his work on Waves Bitcoin gateways for the latest Decentralized Exchanges in this waves update.
by Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja
Italy-June-22-001.jpg - 43601 BytesVerbania, Italy: June 25, 2004
In his commentary to his own book, Sri Brhad-bhagavatamrta, Srila Sanatana Gosvami quotes the following verses:
athaitat paramam guhyam
srnvato yadu-nandana
su-gopyam api vaksyami
tvam me bhrtyah suhrt sakha
["My dear Uddhava, O beloved of the Yadu dynasty, because you are My servant, well-wisher and friend, I shall now speak to you the most confidential knowledge. Please hear as I explain these great mysteries to you.I am telling you the most hidden knowledge."
(Srimad-bhagavatam 11.11.49)]
sri-bhagavan uvaca
na rodhayati mam yogo
na sankhyam dharma eva ca
na svadhyayas tapas tyago
nesta-purtam na daksina
vratani yajnas chandamsi
tirthani niyama yamah
yathavarundhe sat-sangah
sarva-sangapaho hi mam
(Srimad-bhagavatam 11.12.1-2)]
In the 11th Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Lord Krsna tells Uddhava, "O My dear Uddhava, you are very near and dear to Me. You are My friend, commander-in-chief and advisor, and we have so many other relationships as well. I am therefore going to reveal to you the most important and hidden knowledge."
"O friend, the association of My most elevated devotees cuts to pieces all desires for worldly sense gratification. That high-class mahat-sanga, association of pure devotees, can control Me. On the other hand, philosophical analysis, piety, yoga, chanting the Vedas, accepting the renounced order of life, performing severe austerities, giving in charity, non-violence, following instructions for discipline in the practice of yoga, taking vows, visiting and bathing in holy places chanting confidential mantras cannot do so."
You should also think like this. These activities cannot help you anywhere near as much as mahat-sanga can help. Mahat-sanga is the most favorable activity for advancement in devotion to the Lord. Controlling the mind and senses - along with mahat-sanga it is ok, otherwise not. If anyone has taken sannyasa but has no devotion or strong faith in the self-realized guru, the above-mentioned pious activities are all performed in vain. External activities alone cannot help you.
Performing Vedic fire sacrifices and developing gardens, children's schools and areas for cow protection also cannot help you. Daksina (bringing money to Gurudeva.) alone will not help. You will have to serve internally, in pure devotee association, so that pure bhakti will come to you. In that association you will learn how to control Krsna in no time.
Otherwise, fasting on the holy day of Ekadasi, worshiping demigods and even Deities of the Lord, chanting brahma-gayatri and other mantras, and taking bath in Ganga alone will not help you. Lord Krsna has also mentioned always telling the truth, not stealing, and being detached from the world. They will also not help you. They will control and attract you. Without mahat-sanga, even observing the Ekadasi fast will be like reward-seeking activity. You will thus be controlled, bound by the subsequent material pious results.
Mahat-sanga must be included in these activities in order for them to be beneficial to you. If you neglect mahat-sanga and you also neglect asat-sanga (association of materialists), even this will not be favorable. If one neglects asat-sanga and at the same time neglects sat-sanga, this is not only of no use, but it is dangerous. This is because one will again be attracted by asat-sanga. In fact, that person is still in asat-sanga, the association of his own polluted mind and heart.
Asancaya means not to collect anything, and Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami is an example of a devotee who did not collect material paraphernalia. If asancayah is done for bhakti or is a result of bhakti, and if it is done in mahat-sanga, then it is okay. Otherwise it is nothing. It is not okay. To collect paraphernalia is sancayah. Asancayah is good in connection with bhakti. Then it is favorable. If it is not for bhakti, it is not favorable. Brahmacarya (celibacy) will also not be favorable.
Mauna is the practice of silence. To be silent among worldly persons is somewhat good, but don't be silent in the assembly of Gurudeva and Vaisnavas. Chant Hare Krsna, ask those pure devotees questions with honor, and try to hear their harikatha. If you are always speaking hari-katha, this is real mauna.
Mahat-sanga will control you and cut all bad worldly attachments. Lord Krsna will come to you and you will be able to attain krsna-bhakti - krsna-prema.
Our acaryas have expressed their desire for pure bhakti in their prayers. They prefer pure bhakti over going to Vaikuntha.
pasu-paksi ho'ye thaki swarge va niroye
tava bhakti rahu bhaktivinoda-hrdoye
[Be my life in heaven or in hell, be it as a bird or a beast, may devotion to You always remain within the heart of Bhaktivinoda.
(Sri Siksastaka, Song 4)]
Our acaryas want bhakti and mahat-sanga. For them, without mahat-sanga there is no need of heaven or even the spiritual world of Vaikuntha. Suppose one person is hearing hari-katha in bona-fide mahat-sanga, and another person is in Vrndavana with the monkeys, taking bath in the Yamuna and performing parikrama of Govardhana - but is not in mahat sanga. Who is better? The person in mahat-sanga is better. A kanistha-adhikari, a neophyte devotee, cannot understand this fact, but Sri Krsna Himself confirms it.
mad-bhakta yatra gayanti tatra tisthami narada:
"O Narada, I am present wherever My devotees are chanting."
(Padma Purana)
It is for this reason that Krsna is saying, "Life is only successful in the association of the mahat-purusa. It is only successful in mahat-sanga." What more can I tell about this subject? What to speak of having their association, even to hear the glorification of this kind of mahatma gives the fruit of bhakti.
Vidura has said:
srutasya pumsam sucira-sramasya nanv anjasa suribhir idito 'rthah tat-tad-gunanusravanam mukunda- padaravindam hrdayesu yesam
["Persons who hear from a spiritual master with great labor and for a long time must hear from the mouths of pure devotees about the character and activities of pure devotees. Pure devotees always think within their hearts of the lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead, who awards His devotees liberation."
(Srimad-bhagavatam 3.13.4)]
Scholars of the Spiritual science have established this tattva. We must hear sastra, but in mahat-sanga; not here and there. Krsna takes rest in the heart of His devotees. He is always present in their hearts' glorification of Him; so go to these persons. By their association you will attain devotion to Lord Krsna and your life will be successful.
Dhruva Maharaja prayed, "O Prabhu, to meditate on Your lotus feet and to hear Your sweet pastimes, a rasika-bhakta attains so much happiness."
sa vai pumsam paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihata
yayatma suprasidati
["The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self."
(Srimad-bhagavatam 1.2.60)]
That happiness cannot be achieved by brahman realization (realization of the impersonal aspect of Krsna.) What more can I say on this subject? The life of the heavenly demigods is finished after some time. Kala (personified Time) cuts off their heads and they come to this world again. However, those who are always serving in high-class association will not fall down; they will not die. In this verse, beginning "Srutasya pumsam sucira-sramasya",Sri Vidura refers to "bhagavat bhakta-sanga" and "tad-bhakta-sanga." One is the mahat (self-realized pure devotee), and one is mahat-sangi sanga, the self-realized associates of that mahat. The second is better. Do you understand?
For example, Sri Caitanaya Mahaprabhu is mahat-sanga and Srila Rupa Gosvami is mahat-sangi sanga. The association of Sriman Mahaprabhu's associate is superior, because that associate, His pure devotee, can better give you what Mahaprabhu came to give; the most elevated service to Him.
In his commentary, Srila Sanatana Gosvami quoted verses from scriptures like Sri Brahma-samhita, from so many Puranas, from the Upanisads and Srutis, and especially from Srimad-bhagavatam. He proved that pure devotee association is the root of all bhakti. By this, Lord Krsna can be controlled forever.
The root mahat-sanga is Gurudeva - if he is really a qualified and bona-fide Guru.
All the verses quoted by Srila Sanatana Gosvami in this regard are called rasayana (the most pleasing elixir, the reservoir of transcendental mellows), and at the end of his commentary on Sri Brhat-bhagavatamrta, he gives fully thickened rasayana. He quotes the words of Srila Sukadeva Gosvami:
jayati jana-nivaso devaki-janma-vado
yadu-vara-parisat svair dorbhir asyann adharmam
sthira-cara-vrjina-ghnah su-smita-sri-mukhena
vraja-pura-vanitanam vardhayan kama-devam
["Lord Sri Krsna is He who is known as jana-nivasa, the ultimate resort of all living entities, and who is also known as Devakinandana or Yasoda-nandana, the son of Devaki or Yasoda. He is the guide of the Yadu dynasty, and with His mighty arms He kills everything inauspicious as well as every man who is impious. By His presence He destroys all things inauspicious for all living entities, moving and inert. His blissful smiling face always increases the lusty desires of the gopis of Vrndavana. May He be all-glorious and happy!"
(Srimad-bhagavatam 10.90.48)]
Editorial advisors: Sripad Madhava Maharaja and Sripad Brajanatha dasa
Transcriber: Vasanti dasi
Typist: Anita dasi
Editor: Syamarani dasi
HTML: Bhutabhavana dasa
WCC AmeriCorps Individual Placement (IP) Jaime Liljegren sets up a LiDar target at Shoalwater Bay while serving with Ecology's Coastal Monitoring and Analysis Program.
Washington Conservation Corps provides services to communities statewide through restoration projects, environmental education, and disaster response.
Check out the variety of projects our AmeriCorps members have supported over the years at www.ecy.wa.gov/wcc
Photo by WCC/Ecology
2015
For his Branding 2 project, Scott Strathern chose to brand the identity of a waterfront boutique hotel on the shores of False Creek in Vancouver. The result is a refreshing take on a modern hotel that meets the needs of his audience — smart, design savvy, cool, and hip people in the know. The brand package consists of competitive analysis, moodboard, environment design, logo design and miscellaneous branded applications.
Learn more about VFS's one-year Digital Design program at www.vfs.com/digitaldesign.
This news was released by Center for Public Policy Analysis on April 6, 2008
Laos, Vietnam: Mobilization to Kill Hmong
The Lao Peoples Democractic Republic (LPDR) regime, in cooperation with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), have issued a new order and drafted a comprehensive strategy to mount a major military offensive to exterminate thousands of Hmong in hiding in the jungles and mountains of Laos, including thousands of unarmed women and children.
(PressZoom) - The Lao Peoples Democractic Republic ( LPDR ) regime, in cooperation with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam ( SRV ), has issued a new order and drafted a comprehensive strategy to mount a major military offensive to exterminate thousands of Hmong in hiding in the jungles and mountains of Laos. The offensive will involve special battalions of troops and special operations commandos from Vietnam who are now being deployed to the closed military zones of operation. The reported object is to eliminate and exterminate some 15,000 Lao Hmong in hiding in key areas of Laos by the end of April 2008. Hmong in Laos are bracing for these new anticipated attacks by Laos and Vietnam which are expected to be massive and ruthless.
Reliable sources from inside Laos have stated that on March 23, 2008, the LPDR regime under the direction of President Choummaly Sayasone and Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh as well as Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Douangchay Phichit, who is also a Member of the Politburo and Major General Asang Laoly ordered the implementation of a comprehensive and deadly plan to intensify and expand military operations to attack and kill thousands of dissident unarmed Hmong civilians and opposition members in-hiding by the end of April 2008,stated Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C. These new and ominous military actions, in cooperation with senior generals in Vietnam's Ministry of Defense, against unarmed civilians and the continued use of food as a weapon to kill thousands of unarmed Lao-Hmong people constitutes a clear violations of international law and rises to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity to which these individual military leaders in Laos and Vietnam will need to be held accountable and brought to trial, especially General Douangchay Phichit, Smith concluded. www.asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA260042004...
www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/world/asia/17laos.html
Amnesty International has issued numerous reports about war crimes in Laos, including a March 2007 report about the Lao military's attacks and mass starvation Hmong civilians and dissident and opposition groups. Independent humanitarian and human rights organizations as well as journalists including Doctors Without Borders ( MSF ), the New York Times, Time magazine ( Asia-Edition ), Le Monde, Al Jazeera and others have documented the attacks by the Lao military on Laotian and Hmong civilians, dissident and opposition groups in Laos.
www.english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3901AC50-813C-409F-8F...
www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA26/003/2007
The Lao Peoples Army ( LPA ) is reportedly mobilizing significant battalions of fresh combat troops in key areas of Laos, at the direction and command of PAVN units from Vietnam, and with the support of vintage, Soviet built MI-8 helicopter gunships equipped with rocket launchers and machine guns to launch ethnic cleansing operations and military attacks against thousands of unarmed Lao Hmong civilians at Phou Da Phao, Phou Bia Mountain area and elsewhere, Smith stated. Two MI-8 helicopter gunships were reportedly deployed again by the Lao military for several weeks to attack and kill the Lao and Hmong people seeking refuge and sanctuary in the Phou Da Phao area, Smith continued.
We condemn this new military campaign, and these cruel attacks, atrocities and war crimes by the Lao military and Vietnam on unarmed Hmong in Laos; we urge the international community to provide emergency intervention to seek to draw attention to this crisis and to stop this new round of upcoming military attacks which we understand will me massive in terms of the troop levels and the intervention of Vietnam to assist the Lao regime's efforts to wipe out and exterminate some 15,000 Hmong civilians in Laos, stated Vaughn Vang, Executive Director of the Lao Human Rights Council.http://www.presszoom.com/print_story_143358.html
Mr. Tong Pao Yang and Mr. Nou Mang Chang issued the following statement and joint appeal from inside Laos to the international community:
It is important to note, that the LPDR regime has reportedly suspended Colonel Kham Xeng Yang, a communist officer in the Lao Peoples Army ( LPA ) because he failed to complete the brutal order issued by the Lao Minister of Defense Lao Deputy Prime Minister & Defense Minister Douangchay Phichit, who is also Member of the Politburo, to kill or capture all Lao-Hmong civilians and dissident Hmong groups in-hiding in key areas inside Laos. The Lao regime is using Hmong soldiers to kill and commit war crimes against their fellow Hmong people, which they are sometimes not capable of doing. These are terrible crimes against humanity being committed by the military of Laos and Vietnam now against thousands of unarmed Hmong civilians that are surrounded and under attack.
Most importantly, however, on behalf of many thousands of Hmong groups now hiding from ongoing LPDR military attacks in Laos, we are appealing to the United States, U.S., U.S. Congress, United Nation, European Unions, ASEAN and the international community, to demand the Lao PDR regime to stop its current military offensive and ongoing attack helicopter and air force bombing. Major military units, and fresh battalions of troops, of the Lao military and Socialist Vietnam are now mobilizing for a new, upcoming planned ground offensive which seeks to massacre all Hmong in hiding groups which our information indicates will likely begin in early April of this year. We are innocent civilians, women and children and we do not want to be killed or captured by the Lao PDR government troops. All unarmed Hmong civilians, especially women and children have the right to life, liberty and the rights for a life free from persecution, torture and brutal human rights abuses currently be directed against our Lao and Hmong people by the communist regime of Laos and Vietnam.
Tong Pao Yang and Nou Mang Chang continued their statement from inside Laos and joint appeal to the international community:
Our information and field intelligence sources indicate that they have appointed Colonel Boa SaVan as one of the key commanders of the Lao PDR government to carry out this deadly operation which includes plans to continue to encircle, trap, kill and starve to death thousands of Laotian and Hmong civilians. The Lao PDR government has given the order to Colonel Boa SaVan's troops to slaughter or capture all remaining Hmong groups in hiding by the end of April 2008. Civilians will not be spared. A food is being used as a weapon to kill and starve our people who only seek to live in peace and freedom.
Mr. Tong Pao Yang and Mr. Nou Mang Chang concluded:
The LPDR's Colonel Boa SaVan has already worked to order new air attacks and the deployment of ground troops in Xieng Khouang Province to prepare for new attacks on Lao-Hmong groups in Phou Da Phao, Phou Bia and in Vang Vieng province. His military trucks have begun carrying his troops at night to the locations where Hmong groups in hiding are located and are standing by to launch fresh military attacks against these innocent Hmong groups in hiding in Vang Vieng Province. Large numbers of troops from Vietnam are also being deployed now to attack and kill our people.
In response to these developments, Vaughn Vang, Director, of the Lao Human Rights Council made the following four point statement:
We the Lao Human Rights Council propose the following four points to end the genocide, ethnic cleansing war, human rights violation, and mass starvation directed against some 15,000 Lao-Hmong civilians now hiding from attack and persecution in key jungle and mountain areas in Laos:
We urgently appeal to the United States, United Nations, the world community, European Union, ASEAN and international human rights and humanitarian organizations, to investigate and stop the communist Laos government's ethnic cleansing war, genocide, oppression and human rights violations, and campaign of mass starvation directed against dissident Lao and Hmong civilians and religious and minority opposition groups; and to press the LPDR regime to immediately end all military attacks from ground and air troops against the innocent, unarmed Hmong civilians, women, and children in-hiding in the jungle of Laos.
We urgently appeal to the United States, United Nations High Commission for Human Rights and the international community, International Human Rights Commission ( independent commission ) and other international human rights organizations to investigate and stop the ethnic cleansing war, human rights violation, and genocide, against the Lao-Hmong in-hiding in the jungle of Laos;
We urgently appeal to the United States, United Nations, the International Red Cross and international relief agencies to send food, and medical supplies, and to provide other basic human needs to the 15,000 Hmong who are being attacked daily and facing mass starvation, ethnic cleansing war and human rights violations against them in the jungle of Laos;
Finally, we urgently appeal to the United States, United Nation, and ASEAN Nations to bring true peace, democracy, human rights, stability and national reconciliation to Laos and the Lao-Hmong dissident and opposition groups who seek an open and free society.
Vaughn Vang continued : Some 15,000 Hmong civilians, women and children, trapped and surrounded by Lao and Vietnamese military units that seek to kill them are now urgently appealing to the United States, U.S. Congress, United Nations, and the international community to intervene in an emergency manner to save their lives. Without emergency intervention, the Hmong in-hiding in the jungle of Laos will continue to be starved to death, killed and subjected to atrocities, torture and war crimes by the Lao PDR government regimes by the end of April 2008.
This cry for help continues to come from the mountains and jungles of Laos due to the LPDR regime and Vietnams continued brutal persecution and killing of freedom-loving Laotian and Hmong people. Your immediately attention to the desperate lives of these innocent, unarmed Hmong civilians, women, and children in-hiding is demanded and necessary to give them the life, liberty and human rights they all, as human beings, deserve, Vaughn Vang, said in conclusion.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5k8oXaG-bQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEWhLZGpvPc
New Approach Evaluates Effect of Physical Activity on Estrogen Metabolism in Postmenopausal Women
Study used direct measures of physical activity and comprehensive analysis of urinary estrogen levels.
Increased physical activity was related to lower urinary levels of estrogens and four estrogen metabolites.
These data have implications for understanding the link between physical activity and breast cancer risk.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Researchers have generated new insights into the ways in which physical activity affects how much estrogen is broken down and secreted in the urine of postmenopausal women. These findings enhance understanding of the potential biological mechanisms linking increased physical activity and decreased risk for breast cancer in postmenopausal women, according to the scientist who presented the data at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, held in Washington, D.C., April 6-10.
Previous studies have suggested that increased physical activity may reduce the risk for breast cancer among postmenopausal women, and that this might be a result of physical activity lowering endogenous estrogen levels, according to Cher Dallal, Ph.D., a National Cancer Institute (NCI) cancer prevention fellow. However, few studies have evaluated the influence of physical activity on the breakdown of estrogens in postmenopausal women. This breakdown process, called estrogen metabolism, results in a variety of molecules known as metabolites.
“This is the first study to consider the relationship between accelerometer-measured activity and a panel of estrogen metabolites measured in urine,” said Dallal. “We hoped by using direct measures to examine this relationship that we could improve our knowledge of how these factors may influence cancer risk among postmenopausal women.”
Dallal and colleagues studied 540 healthy, postmenopausal women who were enrolled in the NCI Polish Breast Cancer Study, conducted from 2000 to 2003. None of the women were taking menopausal hormone therapy. The investigators measured physical activity by accelerometer, which is a small device that women wore on their waists during waking hours for seven days.
According to Dallal, accelerometers provide objective readings of physical activity compared with participants’ self-reports, which have been the predominant measure in previous studies.
Women also provided a 12-hour urine sample. The researchers tested the samples for estradiol and estrone, two “parent” estrogens, plus 13 different estrogen metabolites using a new assay developed by the NCI. According to Dallal, this novel assay can detect multiple urinary estrogens, compared with those used in previous studies that only measured one or two metabolites individually.
The researchers found that increased physical activity was associated with lower levels of parent estrogens. In addition, higher levels of physical activity were associated with lower levels of four specific estrogen metabolites. Dallal cautions, however, that further research on estrogen metabolism will be needed to understand how these metabolites play a role in mediating breast cancer risk.
“By using these new tools to study the relationship between activity and estrogen metabolism, we hope to get closer to uncovering the combination of parent estrogens, metabolites and metabolism pathways that are related to a lower-risk profile of breast cancer,” said Dallal.
# # #
Abstract Number: 2519
Presenter: Cher Dallal, Ph.D.
Title: Is accelerometer-measured physical activity associated with urinary estrogens and estrogen metabolites among postmenopausal women?
Authors: Cher M. Dallal1, Louise A. Brinton1, Charles E. Matthews1, Ruth Pfeiffer1, Terryl Hartman2, Jolanta Lissowska3, Roni Falk1, Montserrat Garcia-Closas4, Xia Xu1, Timothy D. Veenstra1, Gretchen L. Gierach1. 1National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD; 2The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; 3M.Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland; 4The Institute of Cancer Research, London, United Kingdom
Studies suggest that higher levels of physical activity may reduce the risk of breast cancer among postmenopausal women, potentially by lowering endogenous estrogen levels. However, few studies have assessed the influence of physical activity on estrogen metabolism; these studies mainly used self-reported measures and focused on only two metabolites, 2-hydroxyestrone and 16α-hydroxyestrone. Estrogen metabolism occurs via hydroxylation at the C-2,-4, or -16 positions, resulting in at least 13 metabolites with potentially different genotoxic and mitogenic effects. In the NCI Polish Breast Cancer Study, we previously reported significant reductions in breast cancer risk with objective measures of activity. Here we present the first study to date to assess the role of accelerometer-measured physical activity on a comprehensive profile of 15 urinary estrogens and estrogen metabolites (EM) among postmenopausal women (N=540) ages 40 to 74 years, not currently on menopausal hormone therapy.
Participants were controls from a population-based case-control study conducted in Warsaw, Poland from 2000 to 2003. Women wore an accelerometer on their waist during waking hours for 7 days and provided a 12-hour urine sample. Overall activity was defined by counts per day and was averaged for monitored days with at least 10 hours of wear time. Urinary EM were measured using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry; EM were standardized by creatinine, assessed by enzyme linked immunoassay. EM were log transformed and analyzed individually, in metabolic pathways (C-2, -4, or -16), and as ratios relative to the parent estrogens (estradiol and estrone). Geometric means of EM by tertiles of activity, adjusted for age and body mass index, were computed based on linear models. Statistical heterogeneity in mean EM levels across activity tertiles was assessed using a Wald test (p-het). High overall activity was associated with lower mean levels of estrone (p-het=0.02) and estradiol (p-het=0.009). With regard to individual metabolites, high activity was inversely associated with 2-methoxyestrone (p-het=0.02), 2-methoxyestradiol (p-het=0.04), estriol (p-het=0.03), and 17-Epiestriol (p-het=0.03). No other significant associations were observed for the individual EM. Examination of specific hydroxylation pathways relative to the parent estrogens revealed that women in the highest tertile of activity had increased hydroxylation at the C-2, -4, and -16 sites (p-het ≤ 0.03).
Analyses by intensity of activity and sedentary behavior are ongoing. Our findings with accelerometer-measured physical activity are consistent with prior studies reporting a reduction in estrogen levels with increased activity. Furthermore, our results suggest that increased physical activity may lower endogenous estrogens by increasing hydroxylation, and subsequent metabolism, of estrogens.
This news was released by Center for Public Policy Analysis on April 6, 2008
Laos, Vietnam: Mobilization to Kill Hmong
The Lao Peoples Democractic Republic (LPDR) regime, in cooperation with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), have issued a new order and drafted a comprehensive strategy to mount a major military offensive to exterminate thousands of Hmong in hiding in the jungles and mountains of Laos, including thousands of unarmed women and children.
(PressZoom) - The Lao Peoples Democractic Republic ( LPDR ) regime, in cooperation with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam ( SRV ), has issued a new order and drafted a comprehensive strategy to mount a major military offensive to exterminate thousands of Hmong in hiding in the jungles and mountains of Laos. The offensive will involve special battalions of troops and special operations commandos from Vietnam who are now being deployed to the closed military zones of operation. The reported object is to eliminate and exterminate some 15,000 Lao Hmong in hiding in key areas of Laos by the end of April 2008. Hmong in Laos are bracing for these new anticipated attacks by Laos and Vietnam which are expected to be massive and ruthless.
Reliable sources from inside Laos have stated that on March 23, 2008, the LPDR regime under the direction of President Choummaly Sayasone and Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh as well as Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Douangchay Phichit, who is also a Member of the Politburo and Major General Asang Laoly ordered the implementation of a comprehensive and deadly plan to intensify and expand military operations to attack and kill thousands of dissident unarmed Hmong civilians and opposition members in-hiding by the end of April 2008,stated Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C. These new and ominous military actions, in cooperation with senior generals in Vietnam's Ministry of Defense, against unarmed civilians and the continued use of food as a weapon to kill thousands of unarmed Lao-Hmong people constitutes a clear violations of international law and rises to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity to which these individual military leaders in Laos and Vietnam will need to be held accountable and brought to trial, especially General Douangchay Phichit, Smith concluded. www.asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA260042004...
www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/world/asia/17laos.html
Amnesty International has issued numerous reports about war crimes in Laos, including a March 2007 report about the Lao military's attacks and mass starvation Hmong civilians and dissident and opposition groups. Independent humanitarian and human rights organizations as well as journalists including Doctors Without Borders ( MSF ), the New York Times, Time magazine ( Asia-Edition ), Le Monde, Al Jazeera and others have documented the attacks by the Lao military on Laotian and Hmong civilians, dissident and opposition groups in Laos.
www.english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3901AC50-813C-409F-8F...
www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA26/003/2007
The Lao Peoples Army ( LPA ) is reportedly mobilizing significant battalions of fresh combat troops in key areas of Laos, at the direction and command of PAVN units from Vietnam, and with the support of vintage, Soviet built MI-8 helicopter gunships equipped with rocket launchers and machine guns to launch ethnic cleansing operations and military attacks against thousands of unarmed Lao Hmong civilians at Phou Da Phao, Phou Bia Mountain area and elsewhere, Smith stated. Two MI-8 helicopter gunships were reportedly deployed again by the Lao military for several weeks to attack and kill the Lao and Hmong people seeking refuge and sanctuary in the Phou Da Phao area, Smith continued.
We condemn this new military campaign, and these cruel attacks, atrocities and war crimes by the Lao military and Vietnam on unarmed Hmong in Laos; we urge the international community to provide emergency intervention to seek to draw attention to this crisis and to stop this new round of upcoming military attacks which we understand will me massive in terms of the troop levels and the intervention of Vietnam to assist the Lao regime's efforts to wipe out and exterminate some 15,000 Hmong civilians in Laos, stated Vaughn Vang, Executive Director of the Lao Human Rights Council.http://www.presszoom.com/print_story_143358.html
Mr. Tong Pao Yang and Mr. Nou Mang Chang issued the following statement and joint appeal from inside Laos to the international community:
It is important to note, that the LPDR regime has reportedly suspended Colonel Kham Xeng Yang, a communist officer in the Lao Peoples Army ( LPA ) because he failed to complete the brutal order issued by the Lao Minister of Defense Lao Deputy Prime Minister & Defense Minister Douangchay Phichit, who is also Member of the Politburo, to kill or capture all Lao-Hmong civilians and dissident Hmong groups in-hiding in key areas inside Laos. The Lao regime is using Hmong soldiers to kill and commit war crimes against their fellow Hmong people, which they are sometimes not capable of doing. These are terrible crimes against humanity being committed by the military of Laos and Vietnam now against thousands of unarmed Hmong civilians that are surrounded and under attack.
Most importantly, however, on behalf of many thousands of Hmong groups now hiding from ongoing LPDR military attacks in Laos, we are appealing to the United States, U.S., U.S. Congress, United Nation, European Unions, ASEAN and the international community, to demand the Lao PDR regime to stop its current military offensive and ongoing attack helicopter and air force bombing. Major military units, and fresh battalions of troops, of the Lao military and Socialist Vietnam are now mobilizing for a new, upcoming planned ground offensive which seeks to massacre all Hmong in hiding groups which our information indicates will likely begin in early April of this year. We are innocent civilians, women and children and we do not want to be killed or captured by the Lao PDR government troops. All unarmed Hmong civilians, especially women and children have the right to life, liberty and the rights for a life free from persecution, torture and brutal human rights abuses currently be directed against our Lao and Hmong people by the communist regime of Laos and Vietnam.
Tong Pao Yang and Nou Mang Chang continued their statement from inside Laos and joint appeal to the international community:
Our information and field intelligence sources indicate that they have appointed Colonel Boa SaVan as one of the key commanders of the Lao PDR government to carry out this deadly operation which includes plans to continue to encircle, trap, kill and starve to death thousands of Laotian and Hmong civilians. The Lao PDR government has given the order to Colonel Boa SaVan's troops to slaughter or capture all remaining Hmong groups in hiding by the end of April 2008. Civilians will not be spared. A food is being used as a weapon to kill and starve our people who only seek to live in peace and freedom.
Mr. Tong Pao Yang and Mr. Nou Mang Chang concluded:
The LPDR's Colonel Boa SaVan has already worked to order new air attacks and the deployment of ground troops in Xieng Khouang Province to prepare for new attacks on Lao-Hmong groups in Phou Da Phao, Phou Bia and in Vang Vieng province. His military trucks have begun carrying his troops at night to the locations where Hmong groups in hiding are located and are standing by to launch fresh military attacks against these innocent Hmong groups in hiding in Vang Vieng Province. Large numbers of troops from Vietnam are also being deployed now to attack and kill our people.
In response to these developments, Vaughn Vang, Director, of the Lao Human Rights Council made the following four point statement:
We the Lao Human Rights Council propose the following four points to end the genocide, ethnic cleansing war, human rights violation, and mass starvation directed against some 15,000 Lao-Hmong civilians now hiding from attack and persecution in key jungle and mountain areas in Laos:
We urgently appeal to the United States, United Nations, the world community, European Union, ASEAN and international human rights and humanitarian organizations, to investigate and stop the communist Laos government's ethnic cleansing war, genocide, oppression and human rights violations, and campaign of mass starvation directed against dissident Lao and Hmong civilians and religious and minority opposition groups; and to press the LPDR regime to immediately end all military attacks from ground and air troops against the innocent, unarmed Hmong civilians, women, and children in-hiding in the jungle of Laos.
We urgently appeal to the United States, United Nations High Commission for Human Rights and the international community, International Human Rights Commission ( independent commission ) and other international human rights organizations to investigate and stop the ethnic cleansing war, human rights violation, and genocide, against the Lao-Hmong in-hiding in the jungle of Laos;
We urgently appeal to the United States, United Nations, the International Red Cross and international relief agencies to send food, and medical supplies, and to provide other basic human needs to the 15,000 Hmong who are being attacked daily and facing mass starvation, ethnic cleansing war and human rights violations against them in the jungle of Laos;
Finally, we urgently appeal to the United States, United Nation, and ASEAN Nations to bring true peace, democracy, human rights, stability and national reconciliation to Laos and the Lao-Hmong dissident and opposition groups who seek an open and free society.
Vaughn Vang continued : Some 15,000 Hmong civilians, women and children, trapped and surrounded by Lao and Vietnamese military units that seek to kill them are now urgently appealing to the United States, U.S. Congress, United Nations, and the international community to intervene in an emergency manner to save their lives. Without emergency intervention, the Hmong in-hiding in the jungle of Laos will continue to be starved to death, killed and subjected to atrocities, torture and war crimes by the Lao PDR government regimes by the end of April 2008.
This cry for help continues to come from the mountains and jungles of Laos due to the LPDR regime and Vietnams continued brutal persecution and killing of freedom-loving Laotian and Hmong people. Your immediately attention to the desperate lives of these innocent, unarmed Hmong civilians, women, and children in-hiding is demanded and necessary to give them the life, liberty and human rights they all, as human beings, deserve, Vaughn Vang, said in conclusion.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5k8oXaG-bQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEWhLZGpvPc
083016: The Commercial Targeting & Analysis Center (CTAC) hosted an annual event known as the Ops Expo, an annual operations planning meeting between all CTAC Partner Government Agencies (PGA).
Photographer: Donna Burton
As of 9/7/07, 98 / 100 of the first Google results for 'Kent Bye' (without quotes) are actually relevant to me.
That's quite different from just a few years ago where searching for my name would yield a ton of non-relevant results including lots of tournament brackets w/ players of last names of "Kent" getting bye rounds as well as people saying bye bye to a person named Kent in their salutation.
Now I'm posting this here because every now and again I do an egosearch. And I've noticed how it's changed a lot almost every time I look at it. Stuff that is at the top I wouldn't have thought of -- like the vlog post on the five things people don't know about me.
Who knows, this picture could get a ton of links and all of a sudden this could be the number one slot. I'll never be able to predict it.
But I think it's an interesting testament to three things.
1.) How Google's search has gotten so much better over the last 5 years -- I'm surprised w/ how many one-off comments I've made show up in the results.
2.) How I've increased the amount of information I've put out there associated w/ my name.
3.) How SEO-friendly my name is. As far as I can tell, there's not a lot of other "Kent Bye's" out there
What will this look like in 5 years? I have no idea. But maybe I'll do this every so often to keep a visual record of it to be able to quickly look back on it.
There's archive.org to look at old websites, but there's no Google Search archive where you can do a Google search and look at the results from 3 years ago. I'm still waiting for The Google Search Archive.
METHODOLOGY:
* I changed my Google search preferences to show the first 100 results instead of 10
* I saved the HTML file of the first 100 results to my desktop.
* Then I opened file:///Users/kent/Desktop/search.html in Paparazzi! screencap program
This table accompanies the paper 'Scotland analysis: currency and monetary policy'. You can view the paper here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/scotland-analysis-curr...
Nothing in the manifest universe is permanent. It is merely that some things are more temporary than others. Nothing in life is still or frozen. Life is defined by movement itself.
It is incorrect to assume a photograph "freezes" a moment in time. Indeed, we often describe a photograph as a "still life". But nothing in life is truly still. It is more accurate to describe a photograph as a drastic slowing down-- imperceptibly even-- but never an utter stillness. Even as we are not perhaps aware, the atoms in that photograph, whether analog or digital, are dancing about and that fantastic dancing will continue right through until various modes of decay or the total universal death known as thermodynamic equilibrium silences it forever.
The frantic tides and currents of the internet realm move at a polarizing contrast to this slowing down of a single captured moment in time. A photo allows one to linger over a bygone moment, patiently, leisurely and with an attitude potentially unrushed by the clock on the wall. The internet world has only seemingly embraced the photo. In reality it is fundamentally at odds with the soul of a photo in this specific regard.
And as we can photographically stretch out a moment in time we can also stretch out a moment of space. I find myself particularly interested in this concept. I frequently rearrange, dismantle, disassemble and reassemble. This captured moment in time slowed to an imperceptible crawl can now be hovered over leisurely to dissect and rearrange. This spatial rearrangement could be considered more in line with the rushing-at-you-nonstop firehose of the internet, of massive real-time content frequently pushing us into information overload-- disjointed, distracted, busy, fractured, multifaceted and endlessly multitasking. Superficiality is easily the result of all this frenetic rushing about, but if it is possible to slow down even here, to combine the spatially multidimensional with the temporally leisurely, perhaps something new and interesting can be born in the resulting new-found balance...perhaps even some form of order pulled from the all the chaos.
Gramercy, Manhattan, New York City, New York
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
One of the most Impressive stores In the late 19th-century shopping district known as "The Ladies' Mile ",the former Lord & Taylor building stands at the southwest corner of Broadway and 20th Street and, with Its picturesque corner tower, still dominates Its site today. Handsomely designed In the French Second Empire style by the architect James H. Giles, the store was constructed with the most up-to-date materials of the time, cast iron and glass , and hailed as strikingly modern and elegant when, it was completed in 1870.
The prestigious firm of Lord 4 Taylor began as a small drygoods store In lower Manhattan in the early 19th century. Samuel Lord was born in Saddleworth, England, and worked In an iron foundry there owned by James Taylor.
At the age of 21, Lord married Taylor's daughter, Mary, and shortly afterward the couple emigrated to America. In 1826, Lord opened a drygoods store at 47 Catherine Street and soon made his wife's cousin, George Washington Taylor, his partner in the new venture. The store was an Immediate success and In 1832 the firm moved to more spacious quarters on Catherine Street. The prosperity of the Lord & Taylor store enabled Samuel Lord to purchase an extensive country estate in the village of Newtown; now Elmhurst, Queens. Lord lived there with his wife and eight children and, by constantly adding to his property, even* tually became one of the largest land owners in the area. One of his many building projects In Newtown was Clermont Terrace, a row of residences erected near his estate; one of these houses still stands today.
While Samuel Lord managed the selling and buying for the firm, his partner, George Taylor (1802-79) handled the financial matters. Taylor was credited with having a special talent "for figures and could carry the whole business of the young firm to a penny In his memory" (New York Times, March 25, 1879). After having amassed a considerable fortune, Taylor retired to Manchester, England In the 1850s, where during his latter years, he reputedly made It a practice to donate one quarter of his Income to charity.
The extremely successful firm of Lord & Taylor continued to expand and in 1853 moved to a larger store at Grand and Chrystie Streets. This new building, the third In the history of Lord & Taylor stores, was skillfully designed with a large central rotunda crowned by a dome. Soon, however, this space also proved too small and another, "branch" of the store was opened at Grand Street and Broadway In 1860. The rapidly expanding business of the firm led Samuel Lord to take In two new partners — his oldest son, John T. Lord, and John S. Lyle, who had been the first errand boy to work in the store. In 1866, Samuel Lord retired to his native England, where he delighted In his hobby of horticulture.
At his death, Lord left a fortune of nine million dollars. »
As the development of Manhattan extended northward during the second half of the 19th> century, the commercial center also moved uptown and the area between 8th and 23rd Streets, Broadway and Sixth Avenge gradually became the principal shopping district. Beginning in the 1860s, a number of the finest department stores in the city moved to Broadway, In this newly fashionable section which was soon to be known as "The Ladies' Mile." One of the first to move northward was the A.T. Stewart store, erected in 1862, which stood at Broadway and 10th Street.
A few years later, In 1868, construction began on the massive Arnold, Constable & Co. store, which still stands today at the southwest corner of
Broadway and 19th Street. The next year, in keeping with the northward shift in commercial activity, the new Lord & Taylor store was begun across the street. Designed on a grand scale in the most striking architectural styles, these new stores, many of cast Iron, were the work of the city's most prominent architects. Eventually all of the most important retail firms In the city, including B. Altman's, Macy's, W. & J. Sloane and Siegel-Cooper & Co. owned impressive emporiums in this district.
The Lord & Taylor store, which originally extended 83 feet along Broadway, was widely acclaimed as Its opening in 1870 and its modern design was praised by the New York Times (Nov. 27, 1870): "It Is wholly of Iron and exhibits better, perhaps, than any previous attempt the capacity of iron for effects of its own In building."
Cast Iron was an extremely popular architectural material during the second half of the 19th century and was particularly suited to the needs of a commercial building. It had been used In New York City as early as the 1840s, when the famed Inventor, James Bogardus, experimented with the material and advanced the use of Iron for structural supporting systems. The Architectural Iron Works of Daniel D. Badger greatly popularized the use of cast iron for facades and gained a worldwide reputation, shipping prefabricated iron parts to many foreign ports, Including Nova Scotia and Cuba. Several facades cast in Badger's iron foundry are among the finest in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District, where the largest group of cast-iron structures anywhere In the world still stands.
The many advantages of cast iron were quickly recognized and adapted to commercial buildings. Not only was It less expensive to design an elaborate facade in cast Iron than In masonry, but the erection process was also far speedier, due to the relative ease of assembling pre-fabrlcated parts.
The greatest advantage of cast iron for commercial purposes was the large window area made possible by the slender Iron structural system of the facade which permitted larger openings than the traditional masonry piers. The large windows of the upper floors provided much-needed light on the Interior, while those on the ground floor served as eyecatching display windows and added a whole new dimension to shopping.
The eight large display windows along the original Broadway facade of the Lord & Taylor store were each sixteen feet high and seven feet wide and quickly became one of the chief attractions of the building.
The Lord & Taylor building was erected on land owned by two different families who leased the property to the firm. The three lots along Broadway belonged to New York's distinguished Goelet family. Peter Goelet (1800-79) lived across the street In a brownstone at Broadway and 19th Street and reputedly refused to sell any of the land which had once comprised his family's farm. In the I ease for the 20th Street lot, which was owned by the Badeau family, It was specified that the building erected on this corner lot be similar in height to that constructed by the Goelets along Broadway. 11
The Goelets and the firm of Lord & Taylor commissioned the architect James H. Giles to design the store, which he treated as one single building. A resident of Brooklyn, Giles had his architectural office at 160 Fulton Street In lower Manhattan. Apparently he was responsible for a number of other cast-iron buildings, since his name occurs several times In Daniel Badger's Architectural Iron Works catalogue. In addition to designing storefronts In lower Manhattan, he Is also listed as the architect of a cast-iron building which Is still standing In Mobile, Alabama. Erected for Daniels, Elgin & Co., this handsome structure was constructed before the Lord & Taylor store. Giles also designed residential buildings, Including a row of tenements of 1870 in East Harlem.
The design of the Lord & Taylor store was an Immediate success and displayed many of the most up-to-date architectural features. The boldness of the cast-iron facade and the many large windows, together with the prominent mansard roof and striking corner tower, created a particularly Imposing effect. At the original Broadway facade, a large arched entrance gave great distinction to the building. The architect James H. Giles took full Advantage of the site by creating a diagonal corner, which he accentuated with a tall tower.
On the interior, the magnificent hall of the first floor was executed In black walnut and ash. At the rear, a "dark room," which was fast becoming the fashion In first class stores of the time, was used for the display of materials by gaslight. The two steam elevators of the store were considered particularly elegant when Installed In 1870. A print of the new elevator filled with dignified women shoppers appeared in Frank Leslie's, Illustrated Newspaper, (Nov. 1, 1873), with a glowing description of the new mechanism:
it] operates with perfect ease and safety; is as luxurious as the grand salon of the first class steamboats, and is a saving of strength In shopping altogether Incalculable to anyone outside of a city, in which altitude, rather than grand space. Is the principal architectural consideration.
At the second floor, ready-made clothes were sold. Since the clothes previously sold by the store had been custom-made, the ready-made items were seen as extremely modern at the time of the opening of this Lord 4 Taylor store and as a great Innovation in the retail trade.
Despite the tremendous size of the cast-iron store, the firm nonetheless soon outgrew Its new building.
Shortly after 1870, an addition was erected on another lot owned by the Goelets at 10 East 20th Street. This building, also of cast iron, was designed to harmonize with the original structure. The firm continued to expand over the years and erected buildings on 19th and 20th Streets to meet Its needs, in 1903 another extension was constructed through to Fifth Avenue, soon to be a major shopping street of the city.
As the city developed further north, the commercial district shifted accordingly. In 1914, Lord 4 Taylor moved uptown to its present building at Fifth Avenue and 38th Street. Many other department stores followed shortly afterward. When Lord & Taylor vacated the Broadway and 20th Street store, the Goelets still owned that part of the building constructed by an earlier generation of the family. In 1914, the Broadway section of the store and 10 East 20th Street, also owned by the Goelets, were sealed off from the corner section — the original part of the former Lord 4 Taylor store which remains today — and treated as a separate building.
The former Lord 4 Taylor building, four stories with attic, Is dominated by Its picturesque diagonal corner tower with mansard roof which recalls the handsome pavilions of French Second Empire architecture. The tower is flanked by a single bay facing Broadway and by the long 20th Street facade which is crowned by a mansard roof with dormers. Above the altered ground floor, the cast-iron facade displays a profusion of decorative features skillfully combined to create a rich effect. The play of projections and recessions throughout the facade gives the building a highly ornate and distinctive character, achieved by the contrast of light and shadow.
The tall corner tower is set above the first story on an oblique angle and rises a full story above the mansard roof. Cast-iron pilasters with modified Corinthian capitals flank each story of the tower. These pilasters recur throughout the facade and vary In design. At the second story, they are rusticated with alternating panels displaying pellets, while at the upper stories a round-arched vertical panel occurs above the pellet panels.
At the tower, the triple window bays of the three central stories are composed of a wide central window flanked by narrow side windows opening onto balconies with low railings of delicate Ironwork. The three-sided balconies at the second and fourth stories contrast effectively with the third story curved balcony which follows the form of the second story bay window below It. The windows of the second story curved bay are set behind deeply recessed arches, which in their design are reminiscent of corbeled arches, carried on cast-iron pilasters. The window enframements have stilted flat arches with curved ends supported on slender engaged Corinthian columns.
At the upper stories of the tower, the windows are set In a flush wall. The treatment of the windows at the third story Is quite similar to that below; however, It Is subtly varied at the fourth story. The lintels above these windows consist of flat arches with corbel-form ends, while the inner flat arches of the enframements have deep curvilinear stilts. Simple ornament embellishes the corbels where they meet the Iintels.
A cornice with closely spaced brackets extends around the entire facade above the fourth story and Is surmounted, at the tower, by a full attic story with five tall, narrow windows. At either side of these windows, diminutive engaged columns support stilted elliptical arches, ornamented with delicate curvilinear forms at the spandrels. The deeply recessed typanums of these arches also display delicate decorative motifs. Above a cornice with closely spaced diminutive brackets, a tall mansard roof of slate In a fish scale pattern, handsomely terminates the tower and is crowned by an elaborate iron creating.
Originally a large round-arched dormer window was set above the cornice behind a railing which once extended around the top of the tower.
At the 20th Street side of the building, the four-story facade is composed of a long center section with windows bays at either end flanked by pilasters. The design of the windows at the 20th Street facade and at the single bay on the
Broadway side is similar to that of the tower at the third story. Curvilinear ornament at the spandrels of the lintels gives a delicate quality to the design, further enhanced by the low railings with small narrow arches beneath these windows. A curved balcony, from which the railing has been removed, serves the central windows of the third story. The bracketed roof cornice above the fourth story of the store projects slightly above the central section of the 20th Street facade. The ends of the mansard roof above this central section are set off by paneled uprights topped by finials. This roof, characteristic of the French Second Empire style, has three flat-arched dormer windows with arched pediments and is crowned by an ornate iron cresting. Above the westernmost bay of the 20th Street facade, a small dormer with a triangular pediment adds further interest to the distinctive roof line of this handsome building.
Today the former Lord & Taylor building is a vivid reminder of the architectural splendor of "The Ladles' Mile," where many of the commercial emporiums of the day were built in the grandest and most Impressive styles. The elaborately ornamented cast-iron facade of the store and its prominent, picturesque corner tower with mansard roof create an effectively Imposing design, striking both in its scale and grandeur.
First one of 2023 - the Tunshi Studios Mai Shiranui figure.
The P2 Genesis Emen version had a lot going for it, but ultimately many collectors weren't too thrilled with the overly cartoon heads sculpt. I mean, Mai isn't a real person, so that's why the TBLeague version didn't check off any boxes for me. But the Genesis version looked like a caricature of what Mai ought to look like.
That's why when the Tunshi Studios version was solicited, there was quite a bit of interest, though that price was kind of painful. Blogger photos showed they had worked on the sculpt even more since the preview days, and I'll admit even I decided to bite based on them.
Of course, I keep forgetting most people aren't as critical as I am.
Anywho, the package arrived on December 30th, and here we are.
So for those of you keeping track, there are technically for licensed Mai Shiranui figures - TBLeague, 2 x Genesis Emen, and Tunshi Studios.
I'm going to simplify the jumble of thoughts I have into this - based on discussion I've had, I've come to the conclusion that the Tunshi Studios version basically takes the TBLeague figure, plops on a new head, removes a pair of feet and adds on a some accessories and possibly some new hands.
The Umbrella is sturdy, being plastic with a metal rod, but there's only one hand that can hold the rod. The weight also makes your positing options limited to "resting on the shoulder".
The tassels feature an embedded wire for posing, but they're so weak they basically aren't going to be doing much.
The body is a TBLeague seamless S24. If you're familiar with Seamless bodies, you'll know that generally speaking, most poses aren't really an issues, though ankle and wrist range of motion isn't that great. There's always that issue with proportions (curves, muscles, and leg length) so that shouldn't surprise anyone.
Then we get to the head. The two expressions aren't too bad, though they are a bit difficult to aim correctly if you're trying to get them to look directly at the camera. What's disappointing is the quality of the paint work, especially considering not only the price, but also, the complexity, which is low compared to your typical sculpt from Hot Toys, which generally only cost this much AFTER the Sideshow markup.
So overall, I'd say that it's not a bad product, just overpriced. The Genesis version is cheaper, and though the head sculpt isn't perfect, you'll have budget leftover for a body upgrade, and the likelihood of a better headsculpt is more likely due to the larger, more standard socket size.
Da Capo 1991, 206 pages, index, bibliography, photos, ISBN 0-306-80449-2, trade paperback
Long considered a classic for its enlightening analysis of what went wrong in Vietnam, this frank assessment of the American involvement in the war comes straight from the U.S. Army generals responsible for its conduct in the field. First published in 1977 to great acclaim, the painful indictment of both the military and civilian policy makers serves as a useful guide on how to avoid similar disasters in today's conflicts. The author, an American general who was chief of staff of the most important field command in Vietnam before his retirement in 1970, sent an extensive questionnaire to 173 other generals in 1974, seeking their views on the war and guaranteeing anonymity. Nearly 70% responded, with many adding pages of comments about such sensitive subjects as leadership and integrity. General Kinnard then interviewed twenty of the respondents and supplemented their input with research of Army documents. What emerges from his analysis of the generals' responses is a uniquely fascinating and penetrating look at the war, focusing on such central issues as the competence of American and Vietnamese troops, the clarity of U.S. objectives, the influence of body counts, and much more.
Photography by Dirk Behlau, www.thepixeleye.com for Century Media Records.
Once in a while during a band’s career, there comes the moment when you look back and reevaluate your
body of work. Such self-criticism can either lead towards an overhaul of one’s stylistic palette or increased
awareness for what you truly are. Considering Brazilian death metal brothers KRISIUN, such an analysis can
cause quite a dilemma. Active since 1990, and renowned for such furious classics as the rabid “Black Force
Domain” (1995), 2000’s constantly blasting masterpiece “Conquerors Of Armageddon”, and the merciless yet
memorable “Southern Storm” (2008), the band’s trademarks have always been insane tempos, almost
inhuman drumming and Lemmy-like roaring vocals negating any sense of ‘hooks’ or ‘melody’. And, let us face
it – while KRISIUN have become extremely technical and more varied in terms of grooves and rhythms over the
years – they are forever committed to deliver the full-on-death-metal-assault that made the group legendary
in the first place. Still, after 2015’s “Forged in Fury”, Alex, Max and Moyses realized a different approach was
necessary. “It was a bit of a complicated album,” singer/bassist Alex Camargo admits. “There were more
slower parts on it and it was also quite long. We still stand behind it 100%, but we doubt it is what KRISIUN’s
essence is about.”
Thus, for “Scourge of the Enthroned”, KRISIUN’s 11th studio album, the group decided to head for a faster
and extremely savage record again. Clocking in at an intense 38 minutes – counting in the bonus tracks
“Forged in Fury” was almost an hour long – it was also due to producer Andy Classen’s input that “Scourge of
the Enthroned” became a real monster: “Working with Andy at Stage One Studio again, felt like coming
home. We stayed at his musician’s apartment for almost a month and we all concentrated on capturing an honest, almost live kind of vibe and trimmed the songs harder than on the last one.” Located in the
countryside close to German city Kassel, the landscape helped immensely during this period. “There was no
distraction at all, that place is in the middle of nowhere and apart from barbecuing with Andy we just
worked on the songs like madmen.” Once the album kicks off with the title track, KRISIUN’s newest opus hits
with an urgency and immediate force that even harkens back to the debut! “You mean the ‘Black Force
Domain’ riff in ‘Demonic III’, huh? That song is about the band and our history. After all these years, we felt
it was about time we do our own anthem and a riff like that is a bit of a throwback for us and the fans!” In
terms of sound, however, the band did not bring back the uncontrolled roughness of “Black Force Domain” yet
had a distinct mindset when starting the recording process: “We interpret the album title as us being a
scourge for all the plastic death metal out there. You are listening to human beings here not a computer! All
has been recorded and played naturally, and while you can hear all details, it does not go for this ‘American’
sound that is so lifeless and sterile. It is a very organic and heavy album and I think that connects it with the
spirit we already had on the debut.”
Indeed, sir, and it offers a whole bunch of highlights as well! From the Slayer-like screeching solo opening
‘Devouring Faith’, to the neck-breaking ‘A Thousand Graves’ and rhythmic complexity of ‘Abysmal Misery
(Foretold Destiny)’ over to the album’s epic finale ‘Whirlwind of Immortality’, the latter being another track
connected to the artwork by Eliran Kantor (Testament, Hate Eternal, Incantation) as Alex explains: “The song
is about the Anunnaki, who appear in Sumerian mythology, judging the fates of mankind. Often they are
portrayed as seven figures, we have only three appear on the cover since it connects well with ‘Demonic III’.
As KRISIUN is about to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2020, it’s only fair we now appear symbolized as
ancient death metal gods on the cover, haha!” Lyrically, the album however does not dig too deep into myths
as Camargo confirms: “We deal with religious fanaticism, war, and the tragedy of the refugees, who flee
from the fighting in their home countries to end up drowning in the sea or being treated like dogs in the
western countries. Reality offers a lot of topics to write pissed off death metal!”
Asked what plans KRISIUN have for the months to come, Alex promises a release show in Essen (Germany) on
September 7th, a global live onslaught and invites everybody to check out “Scourge of the Enthroned”, revel in
its violent glory and adds: “We are one the few three piece bands out there, delivering it tight, loud, raw
and real!” And that is, what the essence of KRISIUN is all about!
SAL Chemical Analysis Unit. (Seibersdorf Analytical Laboratory, Seibersdorf, Austria, 12 March 2007)
Photo Credit: Dean Calma/IAEA
The Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU presented their Post Gu assessment in early September 2014. The situation has further deteriorated, due to a combination of drought, surging food prices and armed conflict. Over 1 million people are now in crisis and face acute food insecurity, up by 20 percent from 857, 000 just six months ago. The number of acutely malnourished children is 218,000, of whom 43,800 are severely malnourished and at immediate risk of death.
Mogadishu Internally Displaced People (IDP) remain in emergency despite reasonable humanitarian access. The recent influx of newly displaced people into the overcrowded and under-served Afgoye Corridor (also known as K7-13) is one of the reasons. The additional 10M EUR that European Commission’s Humanitarian aid and Civil Protection department ((ECHO) has made available are being contracted quickly and non-governmental and United Nations partners are using the funds for scaling up their response. ©Abdullahi Abdisalan/ EU/ ECHO